CSO players sign pact raising pay 17% over 4 years

September 21, 2007|By John von Rhein, Tribune music critic

Musicians and management of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday they have signed a new contract giving the players a 17.9 percent salary increase over the four years of the contract. The agreement, which extends to September 2011, also includes a restructured pension benefits package.

In the new contract, the weekly base salary will rise from $2,200 to $2,260 between now and March 2008. It will increase to $2,360 from March 2008 to March 2009, to $2,470 from March 2009 to March 2010, to $2,565 from March 2010 to March 2011, and to $2,665 from March 2011 to September 2011.

FOR THE RECORD - This story contains corrected material, published Sept. 22, 2007.

The increases will bring the players' minimum annual salary to $135,980 (the figure as published has been corrected in this text) in March 2011, although most musicians earn more than the minimum, some significantly more. The Chicago Symphony musicians are already among the highest-paid orchestra members in the nation. Their previous minimum annual salary was $111,670 (the figure as published has been corrected in this text).

According to the new pension benefits package, the accrual period for maximum benefits will be increased from 30 to 35 years. The package also includes applying a higher rate for future years of service. The maximum pension for 35 years of service will rise from $63,000 to $74,025, but the musicians will have to shoulder more of their health-care costs.

The agreement, which replaces a three-year contract that expired at midnight Sunday, lifts any uncertainty that the CSO's upcoming two-week tour of seven European cities would have to be postponed.

The tour begins Sunday and runs through Oct. 6.

This is the first CSO collective bargaining agreement in recent memory the musicians ratified before the expiration date and did not entail extensions, a strike or the threat of a strike. The previous contract talks in 2004 required the assistance of an outside mediator, retired federal Judge Abner Mikva.

Negotiations between the CSO Association (the orchestra's parent body) and the CSO musicians' negotiating committee began in June. Musicians voted to ratify the new contract Sunday. The board voted to ratify the contract Thursday.